#280 characters – Big News from Twitter You Need to Know

Twitter dropped a bombshell Tuesday, announcing a global test for some users that expands the character count on tweets from 140 to 280.

In a blog post announcement, Twitter Product Manager Aliza Rosen said, “We want every person around the world to easily express themselves on Twitter, so we’re doing something new: we’re going to try out a longer limit, 280 characters, in languages impacted by cramming (which is all except Japanese, Chinese, and Korean).

Although this is only available to a small group right now, we want to be transparent about why we are excited to try this.”

So, we want to know what YOU think about the possible doubling of tweets’ character counts in the comments section below.

The idea of extending the length of Twitter posts has been contentious internally, batted around among product groups that are trying to find ways to persuade people to use the service more frequently. At 328 million users, Twitter has been criticized for its inability to attract more people. Investors have grown nervous, as that slowing of user growth has affected the company’s revenue.